Then the Poet goes on to paint her portrait in poetic language, inspired by the charms of a young and beautiful girl, in such a way as only an artist like Burns could do. He says: Burns was received by the father of bonnie Mary Menzies with true Highland hospitality, and at once got the piper lads of the district together and enlivened the scene by reels and other dances to the music of the great Highland bagpipes. Burns describes that mirthful and gleeful time in the following lines: "We lap an' danc'd the lee-lang day, Till piper lads were wae and weary." Burns, ever observant and ready to turn every incident to poetic account, observed that there was a young gallant of another and kindred Clan " gone" on bonnie Mary Menzies, of the name of Charlie MacGregor, who, attempting to kiss bonnie Mary Menzies, lost in the scuffle his tartan plaidie. The Poet thus describes the incident : "Theniel Menzies' bonie Mary, Theniel Menzies' bonie Mary; Charlie Gregor tint (lost) his plaidie, Kissin' Theniel's bonie Mary." : Not only did MacGregor lose his plaidie for his impulsive act in kissing such a bonnie lassie, but Burns tells us that he had to stand treat for that great honour, in the following words : 66 "But Charlie gat the spring (treat) to pay For kissin' Theniel's bonie Mary." The father of bonnie Mary Menzies, whom Burns calls Theniel," was Nathaniel Menzies, the Miller of Dye, and a son of William Menzies, third last laird of Pitfodels-she being Pitfodel's granddaughter, who was one of the leading men, and head of the oldest of the Aberdeenshire Clans. His ancestors were Lord Provosts of Aberdeen from about 1411 to 1635 almost continuously. Through a reference which was made in a paper to The Red and White Book of Menzies by Sir David Menzies, Bart. of Plean Castle, Larbert, a descendant of bonnie Mary Menzies was brought to light. She is Mrs Edith Menzies Young, 13 Wigom Road, Bearwood, Birmingham, who has given the greater part of the foregoing information. She traces the family thus: William Menzies of Pitfodels had two sons, John, and the second Nathaniel Menzies, who married the daughter of the miller of Dye about 1760, who was also one of the beauties in her time. Nathaniel's father was a Roman Catholic, and of course he was brought up the same; but having met Lord Peterborough, a man of mɛny adventures, who married Miss Fraser, the heiress of the Laird of Durris, and after a year's residence at Durris seems to have got tired of the quiet life, and being of a roving disposition, and having charmed a number of the class young men of the shire, he left on a roving expedition, and was joined by Nathaniel Menzies. After many years of adventure Nathaniel came back, having, as they said, “lost his religion," and fell in love with the miller's daughter of Dye, and became the father of Burns's bonnie Mary Menzies. He had a son, John Menzies, who married Margaret Knowles, and their daughter, Barbara Menzies, married John Callow, and had a daughter, Isabella, who married Jas. Anderson, and had a daughter, Edith, who married Jas. Young, Perth. So that Mrs Edith Menzies Young is the lineal descendant of Bonnie Mary Menzies. DAVID MENZIES, 9th Baronet, A LINK WITH BURNS. PASSING OF CLYDE TRUST VETERAN. THE HE passing of Mr Hugh Killin has severed one of the few remaining associations with the period and personages of Robert Burns. His mother was Mary Mr HUGH KILLIN. 66 Lees, daughter of Mrs William Lees, who was Jenny Armour, younger sister of Jean, the Poet's wife. Mary Lees was intimate with another Mauchline young lady, Jean Wilson, a niece of "The Callant Weaver," Robert Wilson, who showed great kindness to Jean Armour in Paisley. Jean Wilson," writes Mr Thomas Killin, "went to Australia over eighty years ago as a lady's help with a family named Ranken, from Sorn. Going to Australia in those days was a great event, and anyone going usually got keepsakes from their friends. Mrs William Lees (Jenny Armour and Mary Lees' mother) said to Jean Wilson, I shall give you something worth prizing,' and she gave her a small lock of Burns's hair which Jean Armour had cut from the Poet's head when he died in Dumfries, her sister Jenny being with her in Dumfries at the death. Jean Wilson took this hair to Australia, got married to an Englishman named Maukett, and died within a couple of years of their marriage after having a little boy. Mr Maukett returned the hair to his wife's friends in Mauchline with a letter saying his wife put more value on this lock of hair than anything else she possessed, and he thought the proper place for it was back among her friends. This was very much prized by them. Mrs M'Ewan, a sister of Jean Wilson, on one occasion was so overcome with the persuasion of an American for three hairs that she gave him them, which he said he would for ever prize. On the death of Mrs M'Ewan, on behalf of the family I got £50 from Mr Dunlop of Doonside for the relic, and it is now in the Burns Cottage Museum at Ayr in the wee pasteboard box in which it was sent back from Australia." The late Mr Hugh Killin lost his parents when very young and was brought up by his grandmother, and he well remembered her speaking of the Poet, whom she knew personally. had seen three of the Poet's sons at the house of Mrs Lees. She was their aunt, and they came occasionally to visit her. He Mr Killin came to the Clyde in 1860, residing in Glasgow, where he was married in 1862. The aged couple celebrated their golden wedding in 1912. He joined the Clyde Trust when he came to Glasgow, and retired a few years ago, after forty-five years' faithful service, for a wellearned rest, on pension granted by the Clyde Trust. He had seen some great alterations and improvements on the Clyde, and had assisted at the making of all the large docks which are now such a boon to our Mercantile Marine, and a great asset to the Clyde and the nation. He rarely went into company, and I do not think the Royal Burgh of Renfrew realised that in their midst they had a relation of the Scottish Poet, who had done so much to learn Scotsmen the world o'er the great birthright of freedom and straight living as depicted by Robert Burns. And so, after those long years of strenuous toil, Mr Hugh Killin was laid quietly to rest in that old-fashioned churchyard of Renfrew Parish, followed to his last resting place by a large gathering of his family and friends, by whom he was much esteemed and respected. Thus ends a life well spent. Mr Killin is survived by his wife, three sons, three daughters, and twenty grandchildren. AUTHORSHIP OF THE "VERSES ON THE DESTRUCTION OF THE WOODS NEAR DRUMLANRIG." IN N the Scots Magazine for February, 1803 (vol. LXV., pp. 129-130) there were printed-for the first time, it is believed-twelve four-line "Verses Written on a window shutter of a small country Inn, in Dumfriesshire, supposed to be by R. Burns.” The verses are those beginning "As on the banks o' winding Nith 66 As " and are now better known as Verses on the Destruction of the Woods near Drumlanrig." Lines Written on the Banks of the Nith by Robert Burns" they appeared in the Glasgow College Album, 1828, the editors of which believed them to be unpublished. Doubtless they were reprinted elsewhere before being included by James Hogg and William Motherwell in the fifth volume (1836) of their Works of Burns. Allan Cunningham did not include them in his eight-volume edition of 1834, but he did print them in his one-volume edition of 1840. He, however, omitted them from his edition of 1842, because of a doubt as to Burns being their author. William Scott Douglas (vol. 3, 1877), believed them to be by Burns; and Dr William Wallace (vol. 4, 1896), inclined to their being the composition of Burns-from internal evidence; a position taken up also by Mr D. M'Naught (People's Edition, 1896) : "there is no proof of the authenticity of this piece save its intrinsic merit." Mr George A. Aitken, editor of the third Aldine edition of Burns, prints the verses (vol. 3, 1893), with a note that "Cromek wrote to Creech that he was told they were really written by Mackenzie.” This statement is repeated by Messrs Henley and Henderson |